Solaris Installation Tool Support of ZFS File Systems

The following Solaris installation tools have been enhanced in the Solaris 10 10/08 release to support ZFS file systems:

• Solaris interactive text installer to install a UFS or a ZFS root file system. The default file system is still UFS for the Solaris 10 10/08 release.

• Custom JumpStart features to set up a profile to create a ZFS storage pool and designate a bootable ZFS file system.

• Migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system by using the Solaris^TM Live Upgrade feature. The lucreate and luactivate commands have been enhanced to support ZFS pools and file systems. The lustatus and ludelete commands work as in previous Solaris releases.

• Set up a mirrored ZFS root pool by selecting two disks during the installation. Or, you can attach or add additional disks after the installation to create a mirrored ZFS root pool.

• Automatically create swap and dump devices on ZFS volumes in the ZFS root pool.

For more information, see the Solaris ZFS Administration Guide.

For previous Solaris 10 releases, see the following limited Solaris installation tool support for ZFS file systems:

• Custom JumpStart – You cannot include ZFS file systems in a JumpStart profile. However, you can run following scripts from a ZFS storage pool to set up an install server or install client:

  • setup_install_server

  • add_install_server

  • add_install_client

• Live Upgrade – Preserves your original boot environment and carries over your ZFS storage pools into the new environment. Currently, ZFS cannot be used as a bootable root file system so your existing ZFS file systems are not copied into the boot environment.

• Solaris Initial Install - ZFS file systems are not recognized during an initial installation. However, if you do not specify any of the disk devices that contain ZFS storage pools to be used for the installation, you should be able to recover your storage pools by using the zpool import command after the installation. For more information, see the zpool(1M) man page.

  As with most reinstallation scenarios, you should back up your ZFS files before proceeding with the initial installation option.

• Solaris Upgrade – Your ZFS file systems and storage pools are preserved.